We are collecting information from our RSVP page to determine how many guests need hotel accommodations for the weekend or just for Saturday evening in order to offer you specific information on the reserved block of room options we have secured with a special rate. For clarification, a weekend reservation covers a 4:00 PM check-in on Friday, Aug. 11, and a 11:00 AM check-out on Sunday, Aug. 13.

Ceremony walk-through for Lee, Stephanie, the children, the parents, wedding party and officiant only.

Stacie Alldritt, our wedding coordinator, will share wedding details and logistics in depth with the family and wedding party at Wayne & Larry's. Family members invited to the rehearsal dinner were included in your original RSVP options. We have also reserved lanes for bowling after dinner around 8:30.

Please go to http://Merrilly.net to join our ceremony live. There is a live link at the bottom of this page and on our Facebook Save The Date event. Thank you! We understand that time, distance, travel expenses, health, family or work obligations may not allow you to join us in person. We will truly miss your presence at our celebration, but would like to invite you to still participate from afar. We will be livestreaming from the lakeside site, so you can watch our marriage ceremony live as we become husband and wife.

Ceremony will be in the Butterfly Garden, directional signs will guide to the location once you enter the park. There will be parking spaces reserved for our parents nearest the Butterfly Garden Gazebo. Once inside the gate of the Overlook Park area, all parking spaces in the picnic areas, on gravel and around the circle driveway are reserved for our ceremony and permitted. PLEASE do not park on the grass anywhere inside the park.

Our venue's history turned out to have unexpected meanings related to both of us, which made it the perfect choice for our celebration. It encompasses one of Lee's tattoos that includes the Merrill Four Point Twirl barb wire pattern, Stephanie's love of catfish and memories of childhood fish fries with her family and being fishing partners like Abe & Jake! Only instead of catching a 100 lb fish, Lee and Stephanie are each other's catch of a lifetime! Abe & Jake’s Landing originally began as the Consolidated Barbed Wire Company in the late 1880′s. At its peak, over 300 men worked in the plant making it the largest employer in the state of Kansas. A steamboat landing also was stationed below the factory. Outside the factory, full-time fishermen made a living off the catfish that were plentiful in the river. The fish would feed off grain spilled by the grain elevator next to the barbed wire plant fattening them up to almost 150 pounds! Abe and Jake’s Landing takes its name from Abe Burns and Jake Washington, two local fisherman who had a fishing cabin next to the barbed wire building. A sculpture in the building depicts the men holding two blue catfish they caught in their nets, weighing 92 and 110 pounds. Both of these fish exceed the current state record for being taken by rod and reel. The building went through a variety of uses after the barbed wire business was sold around 1900. It was a paper factory for many years and then used for storage. In the 1980’s the building was semi-abandoned: the roof leaked, it had no windows, and the building was home to several hundred pigeons, two raccoons, and various transients. After ten years of hard work, the building was restored to its present condition and is currently on the state historical register.

Additional details coming. Our original brunch location discontinued their brunch service, and we are relocating.